2.6" Spiny Ceratarges Trilobite - Zireg, Morocco

Now this is one alien looking trilobite, it's almost hard to imagine that it was once alive inhabiting our oceans. It's a Ceratarges aries from the Middle Devonian limestone of Morocco. One can imagine that the large spines may have served as defensive protection against fish that had just begun to develop hardened jaws and likely had trilobites on the dinner menu.

At 2.6" long this specimen is quite large, and it is one of the rarer species of Ceratarges. Excellent preparation with even the secondary spines preserved, a feature often air abraded away. There is about 3% restoration along repaired cracks.

There are currently about 5 different species of Certarges described from Morocco each a slight variation on the others. A paper describing some of these species can be found at: